After the United States completely pulled out of Pakistan, the ambassador and company have headed home. Intent on reclaiming the Sandy files lost to Haqqani, Quinn stayed behind last week and Carrie has followed suit. This week, we open on Carrie chatting with Aasar Khan about why she’s still in Islamabad. The relationship the two established is very clearly strained because each is required to follow orders by their respective countries. Aasar Khan needs Quinn out of Islamabad and Carrie needs the same. They want to still trust each other but their are larger issues at stake here than maintaing bonds with an old ally.
The following day Carrie heads back to the abandoned embassy to find nearly everything packed up and gone. The last few members of the embassy who are left are given the job by Carrie to try to bring back Quinn. Max has rallied the systems that were previously shut down and everyone is brought up to speed on what they need to do within the next five days so they can all go home, with Quinn in hand. After the group disperses, Max has gone off on his own, quietly, to a safe. Carrie catches him opening the safe and finds him with a bag of money and a passport. The items are presumably for Quinn so Carrie obviously freaks out on Max and badgers him for information on Quinn’s whereabouts. Max explodes about his anger towards Fara’s death and insists Carrie work harder to kill Haqqani, to which she insists she can’t.
Panning over to Quinn, he’s left Haqqani’s men that he followed and gone to a friend’s apartment. There, he asks her for advice on how to track where the rest of the burner phones he’s claimed from the men who invaded the embassy. She lends him her bathroom to shower and clean up. Somehow, Carrie manages to track this woman down and goes to the apartment in search of Quinn. Quinn remains hidden and the woman does not reveal that he is there. Carrie leaves disheartened but sure he’s there. The woman has found information regarding the other locations of phones and Quinn immediately sets out to find them. While en route to his car, he finds Carrie, who was sure he was at the apartment and has been waiting for him to appear. She tells Quinn about the kill order on his head and that they need to get out of Islamabad immediately. Obviously, Quinn is not a fan of the information and refuses to give in to Carrie. Quinn launches into a soliloquy about how headstrong he is and Carrie calls to two men she had waiting to take him in against his will. Quinn goes rogue, a la earlier this season when he attacked Dar Adal, and shoots one of the men after brutally punching the other. He chokes out Carrie, tells her to back off, and leaves.
Back at the embassy, Carrie has an emergency care team take care of the men and touches base with Max. Max tells Carrie that Maggie, Carrie’s sister, has been calling and trying to get in touch with her. (For the first time in 8 episodes, we’re reminded that Carrie has a family and baby at home.) Carrie goes to a secluded room to video chat with her sister and learns that her father has died from a stroke. Shell-shocked but, as always, unable to show complete emotion, Carrie hangs up the call and goes to talk to Max about business. She cracks under the gravity of the situation, mid-sentence. Maggie and Max share a moment and it’s a decent reminder that Carrie does in fact have moments where she’s not a robot
Quinn is in spy-mode and is intently watching the men at one of the locations he’s gotten for one of the phones. He photographs the ground area around them and continues walking. Back at his lady friend’s apartment, Quinn is building bombs. She tells Quinn that Carrie has called but he’s unaware that it’s about the death of her father and he’s more convinced it’s her trying to bring him home again.
Later, Lockhart calls Carrie to check in and offers his condolences about her father’s death. He inquires about whether there’s more going on than what he’s been told. He says that the White House has been shopping around for his replacement and there have been assorted murmurings of changes happening. Livelihoods and lives are on the line here.
For the first time in several episodes, we revisit Aayan’s ex-girlfriend, Kiran. At the hospital where she works, she’s found photos taken of Aayan’s murder in her mailbox. Quinn, who had gotten her to meet him in an empty room within the hospital, had left the photos. She’s unconvinced that the photos are legitimate and refuses to believe Aayan is dead but Quinn assures that they are accurate. Quinn pulls the card that he’s lost a lot of people too and that they need to help each other to kill the same bad guy, Haqqani. I understand his motives and his mindset but he’s shaken this poor girl up so much in a pretty brazen way. Quinn, I adore you and your sense of righteousness but please, don’t totally lose your ability to be gentle.
Carrie revisits Quinn’s friend at her apartment again and we learn she’s from the German embassy. Clearly, Carrie has done her research and calls the woman out for helping Quinn. The woman concedes and engages in conversation with Carrie about Quinn, his history, and what his intentions are. Quinn is clearly unstable and both women acknowledge this. A knock on the door signals one of Carrie’s men has arrived, with gloves he’s taken from the German woman’s car. Carrie realizes she’s helped Quinn build a bomb for a possible suicide mission and, piece by piece, the severity of what Quinn is undertaking is coming into clarity. Quinn’s raising everyone’s blood pressure (including my own — please don’t kill yourself, man, you’re the best character on this show).
After leaving the German woman’s apartment, Carrie gets a call from Max telling her that the video of Aayan’s death has been leaked to the Internet. The embassy does some research and tracks the leak to the medical school Aayan went to. Carrie realizes that this is Quinn’s doing and then finds out that Quinn has also orchestrated a demonstration on Aayan’s behalf, against Haqqani. Quinn is walking in the demonstration with his bomb. The bomb he’s built is massive and cylindrical. It’s acting as the post behind a large portrait of a smiling Aayan.
Aasar Khan and Tazneem meet with the rest of their delegation to discuss the demonstration and how they will proceed. They’re unaware of Quinn’s involvement but Tazneem is adamant that nothing can happen to Haqqani because of this so they discuss moving him to a safe location. Aasar Khan and Tazneem chat after the rest of the team disperse. Tazneem tells Aasar Khan that she will hold him personally responsible if anything happens to Haqqani and he assures that his team will take care of him.
At the demonstration, the voices of the crowd are overtaking the streets. Carrie heads towards the chaos. As the madness continues, Quinn’s plan begins. The grate Haqqani’s men were hanging by earlier is Quinn’s target and he cuts through the crowd to throw his bomb down into it. He covers the grate with Aayan’s image and runs out, telling Kiran, who is also at the demonstration that she should leave as well. Carrie is walking through the crowd, behind a poster, looking for Quinn while also trying to dodge Aasar Khan. Quinn relocates to a safe place and watches from a far as Haqqani’s men communicate to one another to get Haqqani out. Carrie is in full range of the bomb and Quinn calls her to tell her to get the hell out. Carrie knows that he can’t set off the bomb because they’ll know it’s Quinn and it’ll be to his death. Aggravated, Quinn lets the plan go and doesn’t set off the bomb. Carrie, full of rage at seeing Haqqani appear amongst the crowd in a black van — memories of Aayan’s murder flashing in her eyes, picks up her gun and aims to shoot him dead. Just as she’s about to pull the trigger, Aasar Khan grabs her from behind and yanks her arm down. He shouts at her to not shoot Haqqani, not because he doesn’t want him dead, but because in the car with Haqqani, is none other than Dar Adal, the CIA black ops director. Whoa. Is everyone on this show two-faced except Quinn?
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“Homeland” airs Sunday at 9:00 p.m. ET on Showtime.
